Shapeshifters, dimwalkers and blótkings, draw your sword, weave your magic, and call upon the mighty gods of thunder and death! Step into the truly unique fantasy world of Trudvang, based on the Norse and Celtic myths and sagas. Beowulf, the epic poetry Kalevala and the fantastic art of the Scandinavian artist John Bauer are our inspirations for building this game.

Trudvang Chronicles is an award-winning fantasy roleplaying game based on the mysterious and dark Nordic and Celtic sagas and myths. Enter a world of enchanted forests, trolls, dragons, spirits of nature, heroes and adventures. Trudvang is both grim and dark, epic and yet down to earth, with a melancholic tone of an ancient age when nature was a living creature and magic was wild and strong. Above all, Trudvang is a saga…

The game is far from dungeon crawl, pink fireballs and endless adventures about glimmering treasures. It’s a game focused on the mysterious and hidden, nature as a spirit and supernatural force.

Apart from the world and it’s design, one of the most unique features of the Trudvang setting is magic and religion, whereas magic is more shaman-like and down-to-earth, and each race, and even region, has it’s own religion and faith. Creation of men, elves dwarves and their myths, gods and beasts play an important layer to the play.

“It was said that shield-earl Jorfi had gathered the blade bearers from the south and from the harsh and windy coast villages came men with spear and armor of sealskin. There were berserkers who had used their swords and axes more than once. Lovi came with her daughters and they were shapeshifters and shield-maidens famous for their courage and fierce mind in battle. Jorfi needed them all, though a feud with shield earl Voldar had finally come to the moment where one of them must die. The grim men and women before him listen to every word he had to say. Soon they were to go to battle clashing swords and splitting skulls. Jorfi said that Stormi was on their side but that Voldar had a frost giant fighting for him. The wildboarers stood quiet in the back, their axes were heavier than others; hair long and darker than soot, and everyone knew that they were the key to win this battle, frost giant or not.”

Trudvang is a vast continent with the fierce and grim Stormlands in the east, Mittland with its rich history and worship of the lindwurms in the center, and Westmark in the west, where the people worship the one god Gávé. Dwarves lives mostly in the great halls underneath the Jaarngand Mountains, just close to the fierce and grim wildfolks in the mountains above. Elves hide in the shadows far in the south and fight against time, which is their most hated enemy. Every day that passes is another day away from the gods. The elves remember the Endless Storm – the war with the dragons – in ancient times and when the gods left them to be stars in the sky.

The setting favors role-play and story telling and is weighted towards adventurers playing part of something bigger, rather than chasing experience points and treasures in dungeon crawl adventures.

The bestiary of the world is filled with traditional typical Scandinavian creatures such as the forest nymph, draugr, troll, helhorse, giants, lindwurm and gnomes, as well as unique beasts designed and created for Trudvang only, including the thornbeast and various kinds of undeads.

Game system

The game is a skill-based BRP-clone with archetypes such as Warrior, Thief, Bard, Shaman etc. and a set of Character Traits (Strength Charisma, Perception, etc.).

Skills are divided into “General skills”, “Disciplines” and “Specialities”. General skills are broad and general, Disciplines are more focused and Specialities are a very specific expertise. The character gets access to disciplines and specialities as he/she advances in the skill.

All skills are built upon a D20 system (roll below your Skill-level to success).

Combat mechanics center around actions and modifications for difficulty and Skill level. Rolls for damage is “open-ended”, meaning if you roll 10, you roll again.

In combat, every participant has what is referred to as “Combat Capacity”, which is measured in combat points. The character uses his/her Combat Points to perform different actions in a combat round such as attacking, parrying, or several other things that might affect the battle. The number of combat points a character has is equal to the skill value of the Fighting skill, but can also be raised with the help of certain disciplines and specialties. The combat capacity is DYNAMIC, which means that a player can decide from one initiative to another how many combat points he/she wants to use when attacking or parrying. The same rules apply to the people and creatures that the game master plays.

A similar principle is used for both Spells and Prayers. However, the number of points for priests is dependent on what god/s the priest worships and the rituals needed for acquiring the points. Blót (sacrifices) for Stormlanders, Pacs and Oaths for Mittlanders, and time spent in prayers for the Tenets of Nid (the Westmark religion). Dwarves forge runes into sacred items and elves use the mighty “star harps” to gaze to the stars to connect with the long lost gods.

This will be an updated version of the rules, released in our online RPG service 2014.